Pardon Capitol rioters, exit Paris climate treaty: Trump signs 1st executive orders
NEW DELHI, JAN 21 : Donald Trump has signed his first executive orders just hours after taking office as the 47h President of the US. Some of the orders include his decision to pardon people charged with the 2021 Capitol Hill riots, withdraw Washington from the Paris Climate Agreement for a second time, delay the ban on TikTok by 75 days and revoking a total of 78 Biden-era actions.
While he signed eight executive orders in front of his supporters inside the Capital One Arena in Washington D.C. on Monday, the rest were signed after he returned to the Oval Office later in the day.
At the Capital One Arena, the new President even lifted the document to show his signature and threw pens at the cheering crowd.
40 years apart, Trump and Reagan’s inauguration have one thing in common
“We’re going to sign executive orders. First, I’ll revoke nearly 80 destructive and radical executive actions of the previous administration, one of the worst administrations in history,” Trump said to a massive crowd of supporters.
The 78-year-old leader’s first eight executive actions are:
1. Halting 78 Biden-era executive actions
2. Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement for a second time
3. Freeze on all federal hiring except for the military and a few other essential areas
4. Requirement that federal workers return to full-time in-person work
5. Directive to every department and agency to address the cost of living crisis
6. Regulatory freeze preventing bureaucrats from issuing regulations until the Trump administration has full control of the government
7. Government order restoring freedom of speech and preventing censorship of free speech
8. Ending the “weaponisation of government against the political adversaries of the previous administration”
TRUMP PARDONS CAPITOL HILL RIOTERS
After the celebrations at the Capital One Arena, Trump returned to the Oval Office where he went on to sign more executive orders, including his decision to pardon the people who were charged for the 2021 Capitol Hill riots.
“These are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon. We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said.
As per the order, nearly all 1,270 people convicted in the January 6, 2021 attack have been pardoned, the Justice Department directed to drop about 300 pending cases, and the release of 14 other defendants who were charged in the most serious sedition cases.
The 2021 riots took place as Trump attempted to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump signed another executive order to delay the ban on TikTok by 75 days. The order directs the attorney general “to permit my administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course of action with respect to TikTok”.
It also directs the Justice Department to issue letters to Apple, Google and Oracle that work with the video-sharing app “stating that there has been no violation of the statute and that there is no liability for any conduct that occurred during the above-specified period”.
When asked what the TikTok order does, Trump said “just gave me the right to sell it or close it”, adding that he needed to make a decision.
US’S WITHDRAWAL FROM WHO
Trump also announced the US’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO), over the UN body’s “mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic and other global health crises”.
This is the second time that he’s ordered Washington’s exit from the health body after he formally withdrew in 2020 amid the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the new order cited the WHO’s “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states” as reasons for the US to withdraw.
It also says the health body “continues to demand unfairly onerous payments” from the US.
NATIONAL EMERGENCY AT US-MEXICO BORDER
The new President signed more executive orders aimed to enforce a crackdown on illegal immigration, including the declaration of a national emergency at the US’s southern border with Mexico.
This order, which only focusses on the southern border, would prompt the deployment of additional Pentagon resources and deployment of armed forces.
He also designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations and signed an action aimed at ending birthright citizenship.
Trump, however, said that he was “fine with legal immigration”.
Besides these, some of the other executive orders signed by Trump also included the renaming of several US landmarks including Mount McKinley and the Gulf of America; reinstating Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism; revoking security clearances of 51 former officials who signed Hunter Biden laptop letter; and opening broad investigations into the former Biden administration’s “censorship of free speech” or “weaponisation” of law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
-PTI
